Group advocates special recognition for women in 2019 budget

A Non-Governmental Organization (NGO), Women Peace and Security Network, (WPS-Network) has called for special recognition for women in Kano state while planning the 2019 state budget.

The Group made the call on Sunday during a town hall meeting for women’s impute to 2019 budget which took place at Ni’ma Guest Palace, Kano.

Chairperson, WPSN, Hadiza Bala Fagge, said, the call became pertinent considering the fact that, women who contribute tremendously during elections and who also are in the majority in every society, are been relegated to the background when it comes to issues of governance.

According to her, there is the need for the government of the state to accord special priority to the needs of the women such as the provision of standard healthcare facilities across the 44 LGAs of the state which will further reduce the rate of maternal deaths in the state, provision of social amenities, drugs for pregnant women, girl-child education among other needs rather than the conventional empowerment programs which only few women benefit from.

“We are gathered here today in this town hall meeting with these women from the 44 LGAs of the state to discuss issues that concerns their lives.

These issues ordinarily, should be captured in every budget allocations which we observed that things are not been properly implemented.

We are advocating that the needs of the women be reflected in the budget and not only that, but we want to see to it that, every amount of money allocated for such purpose is fully used for what it’s meant for”

Hadiza said, although, the project which started in 2018 did not record much achievements in the previous budget, but that the group would not relent in doing it’s possible best to see that, the government realize the importance of women in the society and the need to cater for their basic needs expected from the part of the government.

However, she expressed displeasure over the absence of government officials from the state’s ministry of budget as well as representative of the state’s commissioner of women affairs and social development, who had earlier notified them of her inability to attend the meeting but promised to send in someone in her place.

“I can’t explain what went wrong, all the government officials expected at this town hall meeting ended up not coming.

Those in authority must understand that they are there to serve the masses, we expected them to be here to address these women from our grassroots but unfortunately, they disappointed us without any excuse”

She further stated that, the programme is gradually gaining acceptance as other neighbouring states have adopted the idea through which, women can now have a say in the affairs of governance as it affects their lives and the society at large.